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Lau Phua Chay Roasted Delicacies @ Alexandra Village Hawker Center

The media has covered it numerous times – naming this corner stall at Alexandra Village Hawker Center as one of the best “shao la” or roasted delicacies in Singapore. I took a visit to Lau Phua Chay for it’s roasted meat.

Mr. Lin Ding Jie, the chef behind the knife, has been manning this popular roasted meat stall for the past 30 over years and there is no sign of him stopping, despite he is already in his 50s. Due to the recent renovation of Alexandra Village Hawker Center, gone were the old facade and in comes a cleaner look of the stalls all around the hawker center.

Lau Puay Chye serves up a few main types of meat, including the ever-popular roasted duck, delectable charsiew and roasted meat. What makes this stall a huge favourite among local roasted meat lovers would be Mr. Lin’s signature dark sauce used to pour all over the meat and fragrant “you fan” (literally translated as oil rice which consists mainly of onions, garlic and other ingredients). It’s almost like the type of rice typically found in Chicken Rice but not as strong in terms of fragrant yet good enough.

As a joke, I often tell my friends that we can’t really see what we are eating because of the dark sauce all over the plate!

Customers can choose to go for single roasted items or a combination of the various meats available with rice. That said, I would really recommend for everyone to order individual servings as based on experience, by ordering a “share plate” would result in paying more for less.

Charsiew with Roasted Meat Rice ($3)

I really like the roasted meat simply because it is not too fatty yet able to main the succulent, tender texture and comes with really crispy skin which leaves the tastebuds asking for more. There are also no softbones at the end of the sliced roasted meat, which means one could simply indulge without worrying about spitting out bones. The charsiew is tender, really smooth and goes very well with the dark sauce which comes aplenty with the rice. Mr. Lin don’t skimp on the meat either, as most of the time there’s enough meat to accompany with every spoon of rice.

Roasted Duck with Charsiew Rice ($4)

The Roasted Duck is definitely the signature dish of Lau Puay Chye. I like how it is being prepared boneless without having to request for it and the duck meat is really tender. The roasted duck is well roasted with the skin and duck meat full of roasted flavour. No frozen ducks are used here, only fresh farmed ducks from our neighbour country Malaysia. This probably explains why the meat is not hard at all as frozen meat can’t deliver the same sort of tenderness.

Conclusion
It’s hard to find any kind of flaws at Lau Puay Chye. The sauce is good, the roasted meat even better. Each order also come with e generous serving of preserved vegetable soup which is light on the stomach and goes really well with the rice. The dark sauce is not too starchy also. If you have not tried such version of roasted meat rice, I am pretty sure you will like it. Don’t be surprise if you come back again and again (and again!)